Education & Talent Development

Metro Austin has a lot of talent. We need many more entrepreneurs, managers and innovators with a technical edge. Between 2010 and 2015, Central Texas needs to increase higher education enrollment from 87,000 to 100,000. We need to orient K12 system toward readiness for college and the high performance workplace; update the state K12 funding formula system; unify K12/higher education transitions; focus less on state operational micromanagement and focus more on higher education outcomes. Adoption of the Competitiveness Agenda below makes that more likely:

Protect college/career readiness standard in state K12 accountability.

• Texas Education Agency (TEA) should eliminate use of the Texas Projection Measurement or similar projection measures. Students who fail state assessments should not be counted as passing. Instead, TEA should create and report a separate student growth measure, but restrict its use to delay of school sanctions for academically underperforming schools.
• The Legislature should commission an independent, external audit of current and future methodologies used by the Texas Education Agency to determine whether the standard for "passing" and "college/career readiness" on the state assessment are equivalent year to year.
• For new high school exit assessments, TEA should phase-in by 2015 a college/career readiness standard which reflects minimum knowledge necessary for college/career readiness. Assessments should be offered electronically, with appropriate accommodations for learning abilities.
• In a new accountability system, TEA should recognize and have consequences which ensure minimum levels of student performance against the college/career readiness standard. Cross-disciplinary standards should be measured electronically, using a portfolio assessment.
• In the new accountability system, since students do not receive a "year off" from accountability, campuses should not receive a year off during implementation of the new accountability system.

Strengthen K12 education; help Austin taxpayers through funding formula changes

• Central Texas is particularly disadvantaged by a K12 funding formula system last updated in the mid-1980s and which "captures" nearly all appraised value growth from local taxpayers.
• Maintain current per pupil expenditure guarantees while returning to formula funding by 2014. The state should update the Cost of Education Index, incorporate school district Social Security payments, and provide adequate funding for secondary students learning English and pre-K enrollment; school district fund balances should not be subject to state capture.
• Utilize K12 funding formulas to allow taxpayers to retain appraisal growth in their school district.
• Protect electronic instructional content to be purchased with state textbook funds.
• Phase in pre-kindergarten student enrollment as part of school finance formula.
• Allow school districts to bypass the $1.17 tax cap by up to four cents if funding is dedicated to educator incentive pay. Allow local school districts flexibility in using all state incentive pay funds for state-approved school district designed plans.

Unify critical public and higher education components

The Austin Chamber commends lawmakers and educators for making Texas the first U.S. state to include college/career readiness in its accountability system. To build upon this progress, Texas should:

• Continue to support increased rigor in the Recommended High School Program, with an expectation of math beyond Algebra II and ensure standards meet or exceed those of the federal Common Core.
• Initiate statewide review of Advanced Technical Credit (ATC) standards for technical courses and phase-out in four years weighted funding for career & technical courses at high school and post-secondary which do not earn statewide ATC quality and reciprocity seals.
• Ensure all currently available K12, higher education, SBEC and workforce data are included in the Education Research Centers. Fund capability of ERC to ensure data accessible closer to real-time. Digitize state financial aid forms. Standardize their collection, dissemination and acceptance.

Deregulate Higher Education Governance Constraints

The Legislature should return autonomy to appropriate college Boards of Trustees to set course-by-course tuition, Trustee terms of office, faculty leave policy.

Restore Funding for Higher Education Institutions

The Legislature should establish a clear target amount for formula funding and community college base funding levels and adequately fund for enrollment growth. The state should maintain funding for current Tier One institutions, the Research Development Fund, the Competitive Knowledge Fund and the Texas Research Incentive Program for emerging research universities, and preserve options for universities to adjust tuition as necessary in light of level or reduced funding from the state general fund. The Legislature should authorize Tuition Revenue Bonds for capital improvements to address public higher education institutions capacity needs.

Focus on Higher Education Outcomes

• For enrollment in college-level coursework, Texas should ensure all assessments used to determine whether students are academically prepared for higher education should have a comparable level of difficulty at the college-readiness level.
• To protect college access and increase graduation rates for academically prepared, financially needy students, the Legislature must protect and prioritize existing TEXAS Grant appropriation.
• Texas should improve the preparation and quantity of higher education graduates through outcomes-based funding. Texas should create a state graduation assessment from higher education and at the transition point between college entry level and college advanced level coursework.
• Add math and science or modern language requirements and reduce social studies requirements in the higher education core curriculum, to include focus on strong student writing skills.
• To ensure sufficient capacity, Texas should work with institutions of higher education to catalog and prioritize new academic and research facility needs and renovation of existing facilities to meet the State "Closing the Gaps" enrollment goals.

American Opportunity Education Tax Credit

Make the 'Doggett' American Opportunity education tax credit permanent.

Support reauthorization of the America COMPETES Act

Support for the reauthorization of the America COMPETES Act, which aims to strengthen our national economic competitiveness through investments in science, technology, engineering and math education;, sets our science research agencies on a doubling path, and addresses the need for innovation in the energy sector by creating an Advanced Research projects Agency for Energy (ARPA-E) to pursue high-risk, high-reward energy technology development. The bill would also direct the National Science Foundation to spent at least 5% of its research budget to fund high-risk, high-reward research proposals and help NSF support US manufacturers by awarding grants to institutions of higher education to support fundamental research leading to transformative advances in manufacturing technologies, processes and systems that will support US manufacturing.

Seek an increase in the base funding for research accounts in the budgets of NIH, DOD, NSF, DHS, DOE and NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) to ensure funds are available for faculty to compete for merit-based, peer reviewed grants.

STEM-Skilled Workforce Retention

Support for greater access to, and permanent retention of, highly skilled students and workers trained and educated at US universities in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) through the US visa and immigration programs. Strong support for the "Stop Talented American PhDs from Leaving the Economy Act –STAPLE" (HR 1791).

Attraction of Innovative Entrepreneurs and Job Creation

Support for attracting innovative and talented foreign entrepreneurs to bring their intellectual capital to the US and create start-up businesses that generate new jobs and stimulate the US economy through the US visa and immigration programs. Support for the "Startup Visa Act" (S 3029).

Workforce Training – The Use of WIA Formula Funds as Local Activity Funds

Support for increasing overall WIA funding and securing greater flexibility for the use of funds at the local level through the re-authorization of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA).